Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
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Rethinking Radar Plane Recap: Will The Air Force Let The Army Down Again? (From Forbes)
September 12, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D After spending $265 million developing a replacement for the vital Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System — JSTARS — Air Force leaders suddenly have decided to rethink the whole effort. They want to do yet another analysis of alternatives [Read More...] -
America’s Homeland Missile Defense System Is Much More Effective Than Critics Claim (From Forbes)
September 11, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D As the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program to the U.S. homeland increases, critics of missile defense are dredging up outdated arguments about why Washington can’t protect the public. They say that the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, which was conceived [Read More...] -
Easing The Pacific Fleet’s ISR Burden (From RealClearDefense)
September 11, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The U.S. Seventh Fleet has a yawning gap in its reconnaissance capabilities. It can’t see many types of surface threats in sufficient detail to track and target them without putting U.S. warfighters at risk. What it needs is an airborne [Read More...] -
How The Air Force’s New KC-46 Tanker Could Become A Hundred-Year Franchise For Boeing (From Forbes)
September 8, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D In 2011, Boeing won a contract from the Air Force to develop a next-generation aerial refueling tanker subsequently designated the KC-46 Pegasus. With most of the developmental risk now retired, the program is turning into a smashing success. The Government [Read More...] -
A Dozen Reasons Why Small Aircraft Carriers Don’t Make Much Sense (from Forbes)
September 5, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D As the Navy begins transitioning from its Nimitz-class aircraft carriers to the more capable Ford class, some critics are reviving an old debate about the supposed virtues of smaller carriers. Like Nimitz, the Ford class displaces about 100,000 tons of [Read More...] -
Back On A War Footing: Five Capabilities The Army Must Have In A Decade (From Army Magazine)
August 31, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The U.S. Army is rethinking its warfighting priorities in light of new threats posed by Russia and other potential near-peer enemies. There isn’t much that the service can do in the near term to alter the balance of forces in [Read More...] -
What A Single North Korean Nuclear Warhead Could Do To Los Angeles (From Forbes)
August 30, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D As North Korea rapidly completes assembling all the pieces of a long-range nuclear arsenal capable of striking America, Los Angeles stands out as an obvious target. Pyongyang wants to hold high-value U.S. assets at risk to deter efforts at removing [Read More...] -
BAE Systems, Inc. Plays Unique, Critical Role In Sustaining U.S. Nuclear Deterrent (From Forbes)
August 24, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The U.S. subsidiary of Europe’s biggest defense contractor has carved out a unique niche in sustaining the long-range ballistic missiles of the U.S. Air Force and Navy — the parts of the nuclear “triad” where over 90% of the warheads [Read More...] -
Air Force ICBM Awards to Boeing, Northrop Grumman Keep Trump Strategic Plan On Track (From Forbes)
August 22, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The Air Force’s announcement Monday that it is moving to the next step in securing a successor to the aging Minuteman III missile force is much more important than White House disclosure of a new strategy for Afghanistan the same [Read More...] -
White House Study of Defense Industrial Base Will Find A Decaying ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ (From Forbes)
August 17, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D On July 21, President Trump signed an executive order directing a “whole-of-government” assessment of the U.S. industrial base. The goal is to determine where deficiencies and dependencies exist that might undermine military effectiveness in future conflicts. The news will not [Read More...]